I sit in a chair being asked how often I receive anal. It is awkward and amusing, and yet, surprisingly, completely natural. Something about that very tiny room and the infected penis images plastered on the wall, makes it feel like this is a place that does not take itself too seriously, as it should be. The place is as confident and coolly collected, as the idea of sex should be.
Photo Credit: leblogdukitsch
“How many sexual partners have you had in the last three months? How many of these were women? How many were men? At the same time?”
And so I sit, answering, hesitating, asking my own share of questions, and the answers are coolly and naturally replied back. “No, sex is not defined solely as penetration.” The nurse, a quick-witted woman who’s seen and heard just about every possible thing a college student can think of, is patient and light hearted. She’s a homie. She knows the struggle. And no question really fazes this woman, because just like the rest of the personnel in this busy space: her job is to help.
In and out, people whisk into the room asking for document and other miscellaneou, office material. The secretary interrupts us, worried, ambivalent.
“This girl just came in with no appointment and we’re totally packed. She says she finished her last pack of birth control pills yesterday.”
The nurse stares.
The secretary stares back.
I stare at both.
The room is small enough to hear the tension.
Intense staring for a whole of 2 seconds.
“Tell her to wait outside, we’ll take care of it”
This is Prevén, and it is here for your service—free of judgments, safe of persecution, for cheap. So how do we get people to go visit?
Well, offering cheap anti-contraceptives is one way.
Photo credit: deviantart
Prevén, Puerto Rico’s own version of Planned Parenthood, is aimed at spreading sexual health—that vague, awkward concept that makes most people cringe, blush, and deny responsibility for any sexual behavior. Because, while many people can agree having sex is cool, talking about sex—the details, the gritty specifics—is as comfortable as bursting your appendix. As a result of this societal restrain, young people rarely talk about anything concerning their sex lives, and often many doubts are left unanswered, many necessary procedures left unattended to, and many health issues left unresolved. Cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies, these are all very limited examples of what could result from unchecked sexual lives. Many people are still hesitant to go to the basement level of Servicios Médicos, though, even considering the risks, mainly out of lack of education but many times out of shame and a “nothing will ever really happen to me like it happened to her” attitude.
The clinic, one of 13 around the island, offers an array of private and confidential services for anyone seeking it, this includes both men and women. Aside from the very useful, very necessary cervical exams and clinical check-ups it offers, here are some other points to have in mind.
- For those whose periods are about one hour too late and hyperventilation has started to cloud your judgment, it offers pregnancy tests.
- For those having experimental sex, openly and casually, and start to feel weird things appearing in weird places, it offers STI tests (gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV).
- For those who haven’t really ever had sex (or maybe did have? does that thing in that last party count as sex?) but are thinking about the pros and cons of starting, it offers educational guidance and advice.
- For those of you whose birth control pills are to blame for those extra 15 pounds and acne war-zone face, it offers diverse education on alternative anti-contraceptives (condoms are $5 each, and the birth control pill supplement for an entire year stands at a price of $10 per month.
This and much more.
Because sex isn’t weird, or odd, or unnatural, and so it shouldn’t be treated that way. In fact, it’s just the opposite, and it should be tended to as the normal, routinely part of every woman and man’s life it is—especially that of an experimental young adult’s life. However, the only way this can happen is if we get real, get honest, and start talking about it. And no, not only in funny, bawdy situations or when referencing the ending of Sausage Party, but also in realistic and serious scenarios where concerns and doubts can be raised.
Photo Credit: Eugenia Loli
So exploit this resource where no one will judge you because of what happened last night. In this secure space, everyone’s pretty much been there themselves at some point. Moreover, health, especially the type of health that can strain your future, is too important to gamble with—too precarious to allow the concept of shame to get in the way. Many of us have been in the position of doubting our health; there’s no reason to feel ashamed about learning about it and taking care of it. Don’t let the stigma of having sex, at a young age, define who you are, what you think of your body, and what you decide to do with it.